Real Madrid performed a demolition job on Liverpool on Tuesday night. The Whites went 2-0 down in the opening 14 minutes but staged yet another unthinkable comeback.
We could talk about tactics in our customary post-match analysis. Ancelotti’s decision to play Rodrygo on the left, having Valverde in midfield, trusting Camavinga in midfield with Alaba injured...
Or we could talk about the players: write odes to young Vinicius and Camavinga or applaud Modric and Benzema who rocked Anfield at the age others enjoy Saudi and Japanese leagues.
But neither tactics nor individual performances are the most important thing in yesterday's win. It's the resilience, never-say-die attitude or, simply put, this team's massive cojones.
Doing the impossible is now firmly a part of Madrid's identity — the last year's run to the Champions League final was entirely made of Ancelotti's lads defying the odds when no one believed in them.
This performance against Liverpool is not a standout game anymore — it's part of the trend, a certain culture at Madrid.
Eduardo Camavinga summed it up really well in an interview with the Guardian a day before the Liverpool game.
“People said we were dead. I saw a stat on the television later. It’s in the City game and it comes on the screen: 99% City are through, 1% Madrid. People think Madrid are dead, but Madrid are never, never dead,” the Frenchman said.
So this is the new definition of Madridismo: the Whites are 'never, never dead' even when everyone thinks they are. And this was their biggest strength in the Liverpool game — this calm, perhaps a little bit self-assured belief that they will inevitably turn this around.
This sense of inevitability was there at Anfield when Salah made it 2-0, pouncing on a Courtois mistake.
Another great example of this inevitability was a surprising tweet by Ronald Araujo just before half-time. The Barca defender tweeted: "WHAT A MISTAKE BY NACHO! He falls asleep in the area and is about to make a huge mess..." — and Nacho went on to have a performance Araujo could only dream of.
The Uruguayan later said that his account was hacked but there is something ethereal about him (or someone else) predicting Nacho to 'make a huge mess' only for the Madrid defender to put in a Rolls Royce display, earning flowers from both Klopp and Ancelotti.
Nacho's imperious performance was inevitable, just like the hate and the envy from the outside world; and, speaking about Barca, there is this sense of inevitability too when you look at the La Liga table at see the Catalans enjoying an eight-point cushion over Madrid.
There is this overwhelming sense of inevitability of Madrid's eventual success — even when 2-0 down at Anfield or eight points behind Barca. Mark my words about the latter.
